The 5/14 Comics Stack: Andre the Giant is Doomed!

Everything old is new again. Certainly, there’s a generation of comics fans unaware of Doomsday, making his return in the pages of Superman a big, mysterious deal.

In theory.

The return of the rock monster that killed Superman isn’t the only big deal this week: First Second has an Andre the Giant bio on the way, while Wolverine prepares to die – and how about some weird romance comics from IDW?

Also, someone out there tell me if I should be reading the new Ultimates!

Think Tank: Fun With PTSD #1 (Image Comics)

We’ll start this week off with a book that could be a sober heartwarmer or emotionally exploitative weirdness. I’m going to hope for the former.

Matt Hawkins’ Think Tank follows a brilliant scientist who’s fed up with making weapons and attempts to turn his skills towards helping the world. Kind of like Iron Man if Tony Stark didn’t have a thing for robot cosplay.

It’s just interesting to me that the book is going to take some time out to explore the problems and challenges of PTSD all in the context of weird science comics.

Speaking of weird…

Weird Love #1 (IDW)

What’s a reprint of a bunch of romance comics doing on this list? Well, it’s spring and romance is in the air – so what better way to celebrate than with some of the more depraved love stories of the 1950s.

Weird Love collects love stories from the period where romance comics were one part soap opera, one part crime blotter. For instance, “I Fell for a Commie,” reprinted from Love Secrets #32 (1953) is a nice little Red Scare story about a young woman who falls for a square-jawed hunk of a man whose heart may already belong to Mother Russia (it doesn’t, and he’s secretly a Fed, but still).

If that’s not something you’re into, I don’t know if we can be friends anymore.

Andre the Giant: Life and Legend (First Second)

The cuddly monster of the WWE is celebrated in this bio by writer/artist Box Brown. We all know that period of professional wrestling was a coke-fueld, hard-living mess, and the man otherwise known as Andre Roussimoff seems like a curious figure to have been in the midst of it all.

This should be a treat for wrestling fans, or just people who fascinated by outsized personalities.

Iron Man #25 (Marvel Comics)

I read the description for this issue of the Marvel site and no part of that made any sense. But I guess we have Mandarins now – plural?

Also: Dark Elves, for some reason?

If anyone can help Tony Stark navigate the fine line between comic book science and comic book magic, it would be Kieron Gillen, but man – Dark Elves are the worst.

Wolverine #6 (Marvel Comics)

Wolverine would have a real hate-on for Dark Elves.

This summer kicks off the arc where the be-clawed Canadian totally and for real dies (for a couple of months) and if the breathless copy for this week’s issue is any indication, that’s probably going to start here.

The series is supposed to look at how someone like Wolverine deals with impending mortality, and I have trouble believing that’s an especially interesting story (the character has, for the longest time, been associated with a kind of easy nihilism, so even if his circumstances are improved, you have to imagine old Wolvie ain’t afraid to die).

Still, it’ll be a great opportunity to see some brutal kills as he inevitably cuts a swath through to the person what wants him dead.

And speaking of dead heroes…

Superman: Doomed #1 (DC Comics)

Doomsday is back! Again! For the first time.

DC is dusting off the craggy Superman-killer because why not in an event that will cross over into the other Super family of books. Apparently, the big deal this time out is that Doomsday has new powers beyond his normal “beat-people-to-death” abilities, so Superman will have to wreak more havoc than ever in order to defeat him.

Who knows?

I typically find the work of writers Charles Soule, Greg Pak, and Scott Lobdell enjoyable enough (Pak’s Planet Hulk is one of my favorite arcs of the last few years), but Doomsday is such a played-out concept and I’m hoping this will be the last time we see him for a while.